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Unhealthy Toys For Kids Might Contribute To Destructive Habits Later In Their Lifetime



I went looking for new toys for my 2 year old granddaughters the other day and was absolutely dumbfounded by the assortment of unhealthy infant toys readily available for our children. I was so nauseated by the vast selection of unhealthy baby toys I felt I needed to vent here, both for myself and for those of you who want to leave comments at the end of the article.

It's risky enough that we adults are bombarded on a day to day basis with underhanded marketing strategies meant to brainwash and instigate hyper-consumerist tendencies, but so many of the ploys intended to hook babies through their toys is just plain wrong! We as adults can at the very least recognize the rouse. We may still bite, but we have the judgment making skills and (for the most part) the mind to decipher when we are being catered to for our betterment or our harm. Our infants simply don't have that experience; which is why it is up to us to cut out the hazardous child toys.

One egregious violator was the McDonald's McKids toy line. Inside the french fry and burger boxes, the backpack, and the kitchen sets were several dozen mini milkshakes, burgers, fries, and cookies. I cannot blame the McDonald's corporation for attempting to profit and let's be factual, they wouldn't sell these toys if people didn't buy them; but we have to understand that this is how our adolescents acknowledge the brand and associate the golden arches with entertainment as a juvenile. This type of brand recognition marketing will keep the obesity rate at a steady incline until we as role models take the issue into our own hands and begin saying no to unhealthy child's toys.

I also saw a donut shop toy set...yup, donuts. Let's face it, any child who knows custard filled donuts and iced mocha prior to seeing the inside of the store is destined for cavities and diabetes... and that's the best case scenario.

Like I said, I can't blame these billion dollar businesses for doing what they do first. We already know what they're all about. We know that for the most part they are cold, methodical, profit machines that will do whatever is necessary to ensure their fiscal well-being. Establishing unhealthy habits in our children only helps their future bottom line.

It is up to us to inform our children so that these marketing firms that are successfully initiating brand recognition at such an early age do not continue on to feed the unhealthy baby habits that feed into the childhood obesity epidemic through unhealthy toys for our children and babies. They will continue to create and market these toys to our children, but we need to consider that the strength is always in our hands to say NO!

We can stop purchasing these unhealthy toys for our kids and help our kids form healthy habits; or we can continue down the same path. Let our adolescents be influenced by people who don't care about them or their well-being. Allow them to be an additional unhealthy statistics in a growing unhealthy society. Or we can do what is correct rather than what is easy. We can value our kids by valuing our purchases for them. We can keep our honor by giving our kids a fighting chance against the illness and dysfunction both instigated and ignored by the fast food industry. Either way, it all starts by what we choose to surround our children with.

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